phytometern.

1919 F. E. Clements et al. in Carnegie Inst. Year Bk. 1918 288 An endeavor has been made to devise a biological method of measuring habitats by means of standard plants. Batteries of such plants, for which the term ‘phytometer’ is suggested, have been installed at the various factor stations, and three series have been measured during the summer.

1929 J. E. Weaver & F. E. Clements Plant Ecol. xiv. 330 Since phytometers are often placed in habitats that make extreme demands upon the plants, it is best to use species that are as hardy and vigorous as possible.

1954 Austral. Jrnl. Bot. 2 322 There is much to be said for the view that the complexes of environmental factors determining plant distribution can be indicated and measured better indirectly, through the plants themselves, than by direct physical measurements; this is, of course, the idea behind the use of ‘phytometers’ in agricultural meteorology.

1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants xi. 361 It would be of immense interest to use standard plant units (phytometers), either pots freely supplied with water and nutrients or small water culture vessels with a test plant in each, and to place these units in transects across vegetation through open land, grassland, scrub and woodland.

2000 Jrnl. Ecol. 88 414 The phytometer, or indicator, method was used to assess the relative competitive performance of each of 26 wetland plant species..according to their ability to suppress the growth of a common phytometer (Penthorum sedoides L.).